MIDDLEBURY — Two years ago, Kurt Broderson organized a local effort to participate in a remake of the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” film.
He’s now rallying the troops to act out some scenes from the 1980s hit “Back to the Future,” an effort that will also involve the search for a “holy grail.” Only in this case, it’s not the Ark of the Covenant, but rather a rare DeLorean sports car that serves as the vehicle for time travel in “Back to the Future.”
“It would be big,” Broderson said on Thursday of potential loan of a DeLorean for the no-budget film production.
As was the case for “Raiders” two years ago and “Princess Bride” last year, the “Back to the Future” remake is a crowdsourcing effort initiated by Northampton (Mass.) Community Television. Again, the non-profit organization is farming out individual scenes of the film to other community access stations in the region, including Middlebury Community Television, known as MCTV. Broderson is executive director of MCTV, and he also happens to be a film buff. He’s had great success recruiting local talent to shoot and act in individual movie scenes, using rudimentary props and Middlebury-area locations.
The actors and extras are under no pressure to deliver Academy Award caliber performances, and they recite the same lines as are in the actual films.
It’s all for fun, and very much tongue-in-cheek.
Ultimately, Northampton Community TV will fit all the homegrown scenes together into a finished “Back to the Future” version that will premier in Massachusetts this fall, followed by a screening at the Marquis Theater in Middlebury. It will then be posted on social media for the world to see.
Released in 1985, “Back to the Future” features Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a 17-year-old high school student who is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his friend and eccentric scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd).
The MCTV-produced scene will be action-packed. It’s the one where some Libyan terrorists come after Doc for some stolen plutonium. The terrorist interrupt Doc’s DeLorean test, leading into a shoot-out during which Marty escapes in the car and is transported back to 1955.
Broderson and his family are taking on an additional scene for the movie. It’s the one where Marty meets up with Doc in his garage in 1955. The Brodersons’ 7-year old daughter, Annika, will play Marty, and their 10-year-old son Kiel will play Doc.
Producers of the remake realize the individual groups won’t have access to movie-quality sets and props. So they’re being told to improvise, if need be. But Broderson knows it would be quite a coup if the Middlebury contingent can borrow a real DeLorean for its segment of the movie.
And it might not be the needle-in-a-haystack search that it would seem to be.
Broderson said he’s heard rumors of an Addison County resident having owned a DeLorean that was allegedly sold locally. Thanks to word-of-mouth and social media, Broderson got a lead that the mystery DeLorean was serviced at a local garage a few years ago. He’s hoping to confirm some of these rumors to track down the vehicle.
A working DeLorean would be ideal, though Broderson concedes a broken-down version would at least provide a perfect prop.
Absent the real thing, the crew is prepared to use Legos to make a DeLorean model, and shopping carts, bikes and/or go-carts for the chase seen. Nerf guns will work just fine for the shoot-out scene, Broderson noted.
While organizers would love to stage the car chase in downtown Middlebury, that won’t be possible for a variety of reasons. So they are preparing to film in a school parking lot.
All of the scenes must be shot and sent to Northampton by the end of August, according to Broderson.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Broderson said of the filmmaking project. “It really lets you become part of the making of a movie.”
It’s also allowed Broderson to build a network of local folks to work on future community filmmaking projects.
“It’s nice seeing people you know on the big screen,” Broderson said.
Anyone with knowledge of a local DeLorean is asked to contact Broderson at [email protected].
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].